Department for Transport

Driving Licences

Baroness Northover: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of delays to driving licence renewals; and when they expect these issues will be resolved.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to renew a driving licence. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their driving licence within a few days. However, many people still choose or have to make a paper application for a driving licence and the DVLA receives 60,000 items of mail each day. The latest information on turnaround times for paper driving licence applications can be found on GOV.UK.The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited more staff and has secured extra office space in Swansea and Birmingham to house more staff to help reduce waiting times while providing future resilience and business continuity.These measures are having a positive impact. In particular, the focus on vocational driving licence applications to support dealing with the HGV driver shortage has been successful with routine vocational applications now back within normal turnaround times despite a significant increase in applications. The remaining queues are reducing, and customers will see an improving picture in terms of turnaround times over the next few months.

Driving Licences

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) 18–19 year olds, (2) 20–29 year olds, (3) 30–39 year olds, (4) 40–49 year olds, (5) 50–59 year olds, (6) 60–69 year olds, (7) 70–79 year olds, (8) 80–89 year olds, and (9) 90+ year olds, hold a valid driving licence issued by the DVLA.

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals the DVLA estimate hold an expired driving licence.

Lord McNicol of West Kilbride: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) 18–19 year olds, (2) 20–29 year olds, (3) 30–39 year olds, (4) 40–49 year olds, (5) 50–59 year olds, (6) 60–69 year olds, (7) 70–79 year olds, (8) 80–89 year olds, and (9) 90+ year olds, they estimate to hold an expired driving licence.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The tables below show the number of motorists holding a valid driving licence and those with an expired driving licence. The figures for expired licences do not include licences where the entitlement has been revoked or disqualified or where the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has received a notification of death. Current Provisional Driving LicenceCurrent Full Driving LicenceTotalUnder 18 years old462,31839,185501,50318 - 19 years old741,300392,4291,133,72920 - 29 years old2,520,1944,808,4027,328,59630 - 39 years old1,821,2957,118,9018,940,19640 - 49 years old1,407,5987,440,0128,847,61050 - 59 years old1,347,2388,573,8739,921,11160 - 69 years old842,4096,900,1277,742,53670 - 79 years old16,4234,164,4814,180,90480 - 89 years old2,1791,410,1381,412,31790 years and over104132,573132,677Total9,161,05840,980,12150,141,179 Drivers with expired provisional driving licences Drivers with expired full licencesTotal1,278,2213,669,2314,947,452  Expired Provisional Driving LicenceExpired Full Driving LicenceTotalUnder 18 years old1091011918-19 years old1,1381,1342,27220-29 years old29,71139,75569,46630-39 years old63,64377,325140,96840-49 years old75,45181,943157,39450-59 years old76,88699,674176,56060-69 years old52,80489,343142,14770-79 years old512,1041,450,4081,962,51280-89 years old306,8191,123,8961,430,71590 years and over159,556705,743865,299Total1,278,2213,669,2314,947,452

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Overseas Workers: EU Countries

Baroness Randerson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what effect new visa requirements have had on the movement of UK residents seeking employment in the tourism sector in Europe.

Lord Callanan: The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) contains provisions on the entry and temporary stay of natural persons for business purposes (Mode IV), similar to the EU’s best precedent reached with Canada and Japan, with some improvements. For short-stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period, UK nationals will not need a visa when travelling to and within the Schengen Area, where they are undertaking a limited range of activities such as attending meetings, tourism, cultural or sporting events. Under the TCA with the EU, business travellers do not require a work permit to carry out certain short-term business travel activities, such as attending meetings and conferences, providing after sale-services, or translation and market research services, unless otherwise stated in the agreement. Some Member States allow additional activities without the need for a visa or work permit. The types of additional activities allowed differ by Member State, and UK nationals should check relevant rules before travelling. For those undertaking longer-term stays or providing a service under a contract, a visa and/or work permit may be required. If you are travelling to several Member States for work purposes, you may need to apply for these documents for each country. UK nationals should therefore check the rules of each country they intend to travel to ahead of time. We have published guidance on GOV.UK for businesses to support our new trading relationship with the EU.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average number of miles that women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, are held from their home address.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: As of 5th November 2021, 308 women aged 18-24 years old were held on average 41.7 miles away from their origin address; 2,903 aged 25 and over were held on average 45.6 miles away from their origin address. In instances where no address was recorded in the central database, an offender’s committal court address has been used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. Of a total population of 3,232 women, 21 did not have a home address or suitable court address recorded. These prisoners are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody. This information has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing. The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody. In January we announced that new facilities, designed to meet the specific needs of women, will be built in existing prisons to increase availability of single cells and improve conditions as part of the 18,000 additional prison places programme. These places will enable us to hold more women closer to home and their families.

Prisoners: Ethnic Groups

Lord Bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are currently in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 to 29, broken down by ethnicity.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The table below shows the numbers of prisoners aged 18 to 24, and 25 to 29, broken down by ethnicity as of 30 September 2021. Table 1: Number of prisoners, by specific age group and ethnicity, England and Wales as at 30 September 2021 18-2425-29All age groupsAll ethnicity groups11,70313,03178,756Asian or Asian British1,2601,1886,435Black or Black British2,4422,12810,029Mixed9768543,865Other ethnic group2892621,208White6,6178,49856,573Unrecorded8761421Not stated3240225Data qualityThe figures in this table has been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.Source: Prison NOMIS System, PQ HL3924 (Ministry of Justice; DASD-DES)

Prisoners: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, have previously been in local authority care in each of the last 10 years.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is committed to meeting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those who have previously been in local authority care. All individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system need to be able to access the right support to help them engage with their sentence.HMPPS has a Strategy for Care Experienced People which is based on the assessment of needs specific to this group. The strategy focuses on, identifying people with care experience, and collaborative working with local authorities and other organisations, helping individuals to receive the necessary support.HMPPS holds a limited amount of the information requested. Since 2015, as part of the basic custody screening interview, we have recorded the answers of all new prisoners coming into custody as to whether they have been in the care of local authority children’s services at any time. The information is purely self-declared.Age when BCS Part 1 Completed2015201620172018201920202021 YTDAge 18 to 2424424420318718411968Age 25 or over745813710720689492254The data for 2021 is up to and including 30 June which is the most recent date for which it can be verified. It should be noted that individual prisoners admitted to custody on separate occasions in different years could be included more than once in this data.

Prisoners: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many disabled women have been imprisoned aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, in each of the last 10 years.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The requested information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Self-declared information on disability is held on a national database, however, it is of mixed quality over the period requested and the dataset does not include information on when individuals entered custody. Obtaining the information would require matching around 500,000 records with those on another database.Every prison in England and Wales must adhere to the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons. Support is also provided for all prisoners with a disability in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Prisoners: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what provision is available to women prisoners aged 18 to 24 for (1) education, and (2) training; and at what age the provision changes.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: As set out in the Women’s Policy Framework, all women in prison are given the opportunity to access appropriate education, learning, skills (including parenting skills), and employment. Access to education and training is the same for adult male and female prisoners. Provision does not alter based on age except for those in the youth estate, where the delivery and access to education is a statutory requirement for all children in custody and a key element of the youth custody provision.As a result of the Education and Employment Strategy significant changes to the delivery arrangements for prison education took full effect from April 2019. As of that date, governors have control of their establishment’s education budgets, determine the curriculum on offer and how it is structured and organised, and decide on education providers. This allows governors of women’s prisons to tailor provision based on the needs of their population.

Prisoners: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the ethnic breakdown of women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, for each of the last 10 years.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The attached tables show the numbers of female prisoners aged 18 to 24, and 25 years or above, broken down by ethnicity on 30 June for each year between 2012 to 2021.Data for HL3944 (xlsx, 19.8KB)

Prison Sentences: Females

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 and above, went to prison in each of the last 10 years; what was the sentence length in each case; and what type of offence was committed.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The attached tables show data on the numbers of women convicted by offence type and the length of sentence from 2011 to 2020 for those aged 18 to 24 and above 25 years of age.The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody.Data for HL3943 (xlsx, 25.4KB)

Prison Sentences

Lord Bradley: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many additional months beyond tariff people serving an indeterminate sentence are held on average.

Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The number of months which prisoners who are serving an indeterminate sentence were held on average beyond tariff, as at 30 September 2021, in England and Wales, is shown as follows:Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners who are post-tariff:98 months post-tariff (mean)101 months post-tariff (median)Life sentenced prisoners who are post-tariff:110 months post-tariff (mean)96 months post-tariff (median)Notes:Tariff length is the time between date of sentence and tariff expiry date and takes into account any time served on remand.This data does not include those who have been recalled.The IPP sentence was abolished in late 2012 by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act. This means that the average number of months will continue to increase as offenders can no longer receive this sentence. The figures for life sentenced prisoners will be lower as offenders continue to receive this type of sentence which will reduce the average figure.Data sources and qualityThe figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.Source: Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)Statistics on the tariff length of the indeterminate prison population are routinely published as part of the quarterly Offender Management Statistics on Gov.uk - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Lord Dodds of Duncairn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the government of Iran regarding the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The Foreign Secretary raised her case, and the cases of Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz, with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian on 22 September and 8 November. The Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Bagheri Kani on 11 November. We continue to engage with Iran at the most senior levels and our Ambassador in Tehran continues to raise regularly our detainees with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Lord Dodds of Duncairn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the prospect for release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe from prison in Iran.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: Iran's decision to proceed with these baseless charges against Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is an appalling continuation of the cruel ordeal she is going through. Instead of threatening to return Nazanin to prison Iran must release her permanently so she can return home. The Foreign Secretary raised her case, and the cases of Anoosheh Ashoori and Morad Tahbaz, with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian on 22 September and 8 November. We continue to engage with Iran at the most senior levels and our Ambassador in Tehran continues to regularly raise our detainees with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministers hold regular meetings with officials to direct activity across the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office aimed at securing her release.

Azerbaijan: Nagorno Karabakh

Baroness Cox: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent reports that the Azerbaijani army has moved towards the Lachin-Kelbajar region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The UK Government is closely monitoring the situation on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border following the exchange of fire on 16 November. Our Embassies in Baku and Yerevan have continued to urge de-escalation and a return to negotiations facilitated by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Through our Delegation to the OSCE, the UK has condemned recent exchanges of fire that have put civilian lives and regional stability and security at risk. The Minister for Europe and Americas has met both the Armenian and Azerbaijani Ambassadors to London in recent weeks and reinforced these messages.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Air Pollution

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to improve the (1) reliability, and (2) coverage, of air quality monitoring in the UK.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: Defra’s national air quality monitoring networks are made up of 300 sites across the UK and are managed by the Environment Agency. The reliability of the networks is ensured through a process of quality assurance and quality control prescribed in agreements with the monitoring network contractors to continuously improve air quality monitoring reliability and performance. The national air quality monitoring network is subject to continuous review to ensure that it remains fit for purpose and delivers on public expenditure at good value. The geographical coverage of air quality monitoring is determined by the Air Quality Standards Regulations (2010) that require a set number of monitoring locations within administrative areas dependent on whether the environment is urban, rural or by a roadside and dependent also on population size. Several adjustments were made in a recent review including increases in monitoring for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Also, as part of the development of new targets for PM2.5 in the Environmental Act, Government is expanding the number of PM2.5 monitoring sites to ensure that compliance with the new targets can be appropriately monitored. A consultation on the new targets and the proposed monitoring arrangements will be issued early in the New Year.

Horticulture: Vacancies

Baroness Parminter: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of labour shortages in the ornamental horticulture sector on UK tree growers; and whether labour shortages in this sector will affect their ability to meet their tree planting targets.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The England Trees Action Plan (ETAP) sets out our long-term ambition to increase woodland creation and management in England. As part of this, we want to support a thriving nursery sector, and are working with them to upskill and expand our domestic workforce and monitor labour requirements. Planting, establishing and managing trees in rural and urban settings requires skills, technical knowledge, and people to put those into practice. The ETAP includes support for higher technical and professional education routes into the forestry sector, improved links with allied sectors such as arboriculture, agriculture and horticulture, and the creation of a new Forestry Skills Action Plan for England that will raise the profile of forestry careers amongst school leavers and career changers. The ETAP also committed to funding to support UK public and private sector nurseries and seed suppliers to enhance quantity, quality, diversity and biosecurity of domestic tree production through means including capital grants and support to augment investment and stimulate innovation.

Rivers: Sewage

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times raw sewage has been discharged into rivers in England and Wales in the last year for which figures are available.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.Working with water companies, the Environment Agency has concluded a programme to install Event Duration Monitors (EDM) on the vast majority of storm overflows, just over 80% of overflows in England, by the end of 2020. These monitors provide a robust and consistent way of monitoring how often and for how long storm overflows are used and underpin the Environment Agency's planning, compliance and enforcement work. By the end of 2023, the remaining number will be monitored to provide a complete picture of permitted storm overflows in England.The EDM data is not yet available for 2021 but the 2020 data is published on gov.uk and can be found by following this link: Defra Data Services Platform.

Sewage: Lake District

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Goldsmith of Richmond Park on 9 November (HL3061), whether the number of spillages from United Utilities treatment plans into (1) Lake Windermere, and (2) Lake Grasmere, are expected to reduce further in (a) 2021, and (b) in subsequent years.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: In the last Asset Management Plan (AMP) cycle (2015-2020), United Utilities (UU) delivered a number of schemes in the Lake District to reduce spills into Windermere and other lakes. UU also made improvements to reduce the frequency of storm spills into Lake Windermere from Glebe Road pumping station and into Lake Grasmere from Grasmere Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW). As a result, the number of storm spills from Glebe Road and Grasmere WWTW was reduced significantly in 2020, and these improvements should be maintained in future years.The Environment Agency is currently looking at the most recent data to determine if further interventions are required.

Water Companies: Corporation Tax

Lord Sikka: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the speech 'A water industry that works for everyone' by the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 1 March 2018 in which he said that water companies have "avoided paying taxes", what amount of corporate taxes have since been paid by each of the water companies.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The amounts of corporation tax paid by water companies since 1 March 2018 can be viewed in the water companies’ published annual reports and accounts, which are publicly available.

Water: Pollution

Lord Sikka: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish a table showing the harmful substances released by each water company into rivers and seas.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: In terms of releases to water, the relevant regulatory processes refer to hazardous substances rather than harmful substances; any substance could potentially be harmful. Within the context of this question, substances has been taken to mean chemicals. The Environment Agency (EA) reports against a range of measures which assess hazardous substances in the water environment. Chemical classification is based on environmental data rather than the monitoring of discharges. The EA has recently published its report on ‘Regulating for people, the environment and growth’ which can be found here, which references some emissions information for different media including water. The Environment Agency has worked with the water industry on a programme of research into chemicals in discharges from wastewater, including research into technologies that can provide treatment for chemicals. More information on the Chemicals Investigation Programme can be found here with data from the programme so far published and available here. Phase 2 of the programme concluded in 2020 following investment of £140 million and Phase 3 is currently underway. Phase 3 outputs will made available when completed.

Home Office

Visas: Tourism

Baroness Randerson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect the requirement for visas to enter the UK from Europe has had on (1) tourism from Europe, and (2) the UK economy.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: Citizens of countries in the European Union, European Economic Area and Switzerland do not require visas to visit the UK.Visitors from those countries may use our ePassport gates, where available, to enter the UK.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Housing: Construction

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Building Britain Back CommissionLevelling up and the Housing Challenge, published on 5 November; and what plans they have to implement a new national housing strategy that transitions from being based on historic growth to a new levelling up model of need.

Lord Greenhalgh: The Government is committed to increasing housing supply across the country and supporting young people and families on to the housing ladder. We committed to deliver 1 million new homes by the end of this Parliament and continue towards its target to increase building output to 300,000 homes a year.  We are making strong progress: in 2019/20, around 244,000 homes were delivered – the highest level for over 30 years and the seventh consecutive year that net supply has increased.As a new Department with a renewed emphasis on levelling up, we are currently reviewing departmental programmes, engaging with key stakeholders and will come forward with our proposals for reform of the planning system in as soon as possible.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the UK Shared Prosperity Fund has (1) retained ring fenced funding for rural areas, and (2) matched previous EU funding before 2024–25; and, in each case, if not, why not.

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have undertaken rural proofing of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund; and, if so, whether they plan to publish the findings of this.

Lord Greenhalgh: The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), worth over £2.6 billion, will help people access opportunity in places in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people in disadvantaged groups across the UK. The funding announced at Spending Review 2021 meets the government's previous commitment to at least match receipts from EU structural funds. Further details about the UKSPF will be set out in due course.Funding equivalent to European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), including Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale (LEADER) and Growth, has been provided as part of the domestic farm settlement that replaces UK participation in the EU Common Agricultural Policy. The farm settlement is being delivered by Defra in England, and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Cabinet Office

Ministers: Official Gifts and Hospitality

Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many gifts or instances of hospitality have been received by (1) ministers, and (2) officials, from representatives of the gambling industry in each of the last five years; and in each case, (a) what was the gift or hospitality, (b) who provided it, and (c) who received it.

Lord True: Details of ministerial gifts and ministerial hospitality are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK. Officials dealing with gambling policy do not accept gifts or hospitality from the gambling industry.

Northern Ireland Protocol

Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of triggering Article 16 on the remainder of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost: Article 16 is a safeguard provision for addressing serious economic, societal and environmental difficulties. It is part of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Triggering it does not affect the standing of the Protocol as a whole.

Freight: Europe

Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recentflow of freight vehicles travelling between Great Britain and continental Europe.

Lord Frost: Government continues to monitor the flow of freight vehicles travelling between the UK and EU nations, including those travelling between the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and continental Europe.DfT’s published road freight statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-goods-vehicles-travelling-to-europe-july-2020-to-june-2021.

Freight: Republic of Ireland

Lord Empey: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent flow of freight vehicles travelling between the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.

Lord Frost: Government continues to monitor the flow of freight vehicles travelling between the UK and EU nations, including those travelling between the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and continental Europe. Landbridge traffic is being monitored for the movements between EU Nations and the Island of Ireland.Published DfT data can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-goods-vehicles-travelling-to-europe-july-2020-to-june-2021.

Treasury

Electric Vehicles: VAT

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to cut VAT on the lowest cost electric vehicles.

Lord Agnew of Oulton: The Government has no plans to review the VAT treatment of the lowest cost electric vehicles. All new vehicles, including electric vehicles, are liable to the standard rate of VAT at 20 per cent. However, there is a special VAT scheme available for used cars, including electric vehicles, under which VAT is only charged on the profit made by the dealer. In addition, VAT is not charged on used cars, including electric vehicles, bought from a private owner. The Government provides Plug-in Grant’ for zero emission cars, ultra-low emission vans, motorcycles and taxis, which provide a discount to the cost of a new vehicle, reducing prices for the consumer. At the Spending Review in 2020, the Chancellor confirmed £582 million to extend these grants in the year 2022-23.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

House of Lords: Training

Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what outside organisations are currently providing (1) training, and (2) guidance on workplace culture and behaviour, to the House of Lords; and what is the annual cost of these services.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The tables below provide a breakdown of suppliers, services and costs in the current financial year currently providing (1) training and (2) guidance on workplace culture and behaviour. In the interests of openness I have interpreted “workplace culture and behaviour” broadly; for example, the Leadership Development Programme will contribute to improved leadership capabilities in the Administration and therefore to the overall workplace culture.  Development events SupplierType of workCostChallengeValuing Everyone (ICGS) training£23,640T-Three Consulting LtdLeadership Development Programme£57,5303E Coaching LtdExecutive Coaching£6,350Eliesha Training LtdRecruitment Panel Training£3,215Personal Strengths LtdPsychological Assessment (profiling tool)£2,997Geri McKenna LtdExecutive Coaching£3,750CX People LtdPeople Skills (PDR, Applications and Interviews & Quality Conversations)£2,100Inclusive EmployersTwo recorded webinars for Black History Month available to all colleagues:Being an Ally to your Black Colleagues: Conversation to Action – 15 October 2021Being an Ally to your Black Colleagues: Challenging Microaggressions – 26 October 2021£1,350 (+ VAT)Inclusive EmployersLGBT+ Allies webinar£750 (+VAT)Business Disability ForumDisability and Accessibility Focus Groups£3,780.00 (inc VAT) Annual Membership subscriptions SupplierType of workCostInclusive EmployersAnnual Membership includes access to: Guidance documents, expertise and professional advice Best practice from a network of other employers Webinars and training opportunities£2,700.00 (inc VAT)Inclusive CompaniesAnnual Membership/ Recruitment Board & Benchmark, includes access to: UK Top 50 Employers Benchmarking Index Round-table best practice sharing events Webinars and guidance.£3,750.00 (+ VAT)StonewallAnnual Membership includes access to: Online and in-person advice on policy and best practice in LGBT inclusion Proud Employers LGBT+ recruitment board Stonewall Employers Benchmark.£2,500 (+VAT) The information provided above refers to centralised spend on learning and development interventions related to culture and behaviour. Individual offices have localised training budgets, and we do not hold a full data set relating to additional individual office spend in this and other areas. In addition to the externally-provided events set out in the tables, we run other programmes and interventions using our internal resources to help develop our culture and behaviours. These include mentoring, team and individual profiling tools, workshops (including on values and behaviours) and internal coaching. We continually review our core learning and development offer to ensure it supports our strategic objectives and provides value for money, including evaluating our partner relationships and existing contracts.

House of Lords: Equality

Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker how many staff are employed in the House of Lords on work related to diversity and inclusion; and how much such work costs.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The House of Lords Inclusion and Diversity Team is made up of three full-time professionals. The annual cost (inclusive of employer on-costs such as National Insurance, Pension, Apprenticeship Levy etc) is £172,640.15.